Kor
Kor is the name for the ruins of a city located in what is know the British Protectorate of Uganda, found in a small plain surrounded by rocky mountains which rise from the African steppes like a natural castle. To reach Kor, the mountains must be first crossed through an ancient canal, now empty, built by an unknown people to drain the waters from the plain. The plain around the castle is well-cultivated, and the fields almost touch the ruined city walls. Kor occupies some thirty square kilometres; the walls- those which still remain- tower to a height of twelve or fourteen metres and are very thick. Around the city runs a moat but the grandiose bridge which used to span it has now collapsed. To stand on the city walls and look into the city is a sight both imposing and melancholic; kilometre after kilometre of toppled columns, demolished temples, ruined altars and crumbling palaces, scattered throughout the green of an unleashed vegetation, stretches out endlessly. The main street, large and straight, built in square stone blocks, leads to the principal temple which was constructed like a set of Chinese boxes; the external walls enclose a courtyard which surrounds the inner walls, which in turn surrounds a smaller courtyard and so on. In the centre, on a round, dark stone base some seven metres in diameter, rises a colossal white statue representing a winged woman with outstretched arms and a veiled face. According to an inscription on the pedestal, it represents Truth rising above the world and asking men to lift her veil. Several other inscriptions imply that Kor was destroyed by a fearful epidemic some 4,800 years after its foundation. The mountains around Kor are in fact a vast necropolis in which hundreds of thousands of mummies and skeletons can be seen lining vast internal galleries. One in particular, containing a pyramid of skeletons as high as St. Paul's Cathedral, should be visited. Not far from here is a grotto in which different kinds of torture took place. For instance, in the centre is a small furnace in which the condemned person's head was placed and slowly burnt; paintings on the walls explain several other tortures that the people of Kor used to favour. Some of these barbaric rites survive among the Amahagger, a black tribe that lives in the outer steppes. They resemble Somalians and speak a kind of distorted Arabic. In spite of having beautiful features their faces cause terror in the hearts of those who look upon them. They dress in antelope and leopard skins and are said to be excellent sculptors. The women have equal rights to men except that women are excused from working the land and the right of inheritance is restricted to the female line. Parenthood is unknown; only the chief of each village receives the name "father". When an Amahagger woman finds a man of her liking she kisses him in front of the entire population and their union will last unril she decides to take another. All villages or "families" are under the supreme authority of one woman, Hiya, Ayesha (pronounced "assha"), or "She" (an abbreviation of "She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed"). It is said that Ayesha is two thousand years old in spite of her youthful looks, due to having been immersed in the so-called "Fire of Life", a volcanic phenomenon only found in a crater a day's march from Kor. Category:Pages Category:Places Category:Africa